Improvement in fluid-meters



i il

UNITED STATES N. AUBIN, OF ALBANY, NEV YORK.

iMPRovEMENT 1N FLUID-METERS.

Specification forming part of" Letters Patent No. 35,806, dated July S, 1862.

.To all whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, N. AUBIN, of the city of Albany, in the State of New York, at present soj ourning in Canada, have invented a new and useful Fluid-Meter; and I dohereby declare that the'following, taken in connection with the drawings, isa full, clear, and exact description thereof.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of the outside Bof the meter on a small scale. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section through themeter on alarger scale. Fig. 3 is a plan of the' valve-seat, taken from the lower side, with the valve shown in dotted lines. Fig.4isau end viewof the meter shown in dotted lines, showing in colors, partly in section and partly in elevation, parts of the valve-working apparatus; and Fig. 5 isaplan on a large scale of the springplate rod.

My meter was invented under the determi` nation to produce one that should be cheap, reliable, and acting with but little friction, and therefore capable of working under asmall head or pressure of water; and the controlling or leading new idea in my meter is measuring the quantity of water delivered by the motions in a cylinder of a ball, not necessarily packed tight to the sides of the cylinder and of nearly the same specific gravity as water, said ball acting to close apertures at the endv of the cylinder, and when so closing them causing the pressure due to the head to act upon and move a valve or valves so that the ball may commence to re-traverse the path it has already passed over, but in an opposite direction. The cylinder may be replaced by a box with a square or polygonal triangular or elliptical section, and the ball may be of various shapes other than spherical, so long as it is shaped in such manner as to perform its functions, and it need not of necessity be of the same specific gravity as water, although it is preferable so to make it.

The drawings exemplify my invention in a working and practical form, and Iha've devised others which embody the same principles.

I prefer to make the ball of vulcanized rubber or gatta-percha so hollowed as to be of the same specific gravity as water, but intend also to make it of any proper material, such as 'the aperture b from the orifice c.

metal, or of heavy wood, covered with leather, or of wood only, and when the ball is not made of or covered with leather or indiarubber I prefer to make the seats against which it strikes of india-rubber or leather.

In the drawings, the ball P is supposed to be -made of vulcanized or other india-rubber, and it is made to tit loosely in a cylinder, A. This cylinder has two ends with apertures therein, a a2, and is provided with a side pipe, B. The ball when at either end acts as a valve, closing the aperture.

At one end of the cylinder is a chamber, O, on top of which is a valveseat, DD, provided -with three ports, c c2 o3. One of these ports connects with the delivery-pipe to the house, factory, Src., at E, and the other two connect with the chamber and the valve-chestf, into which leads the pipe F, connecting with a water-main. The side pipe connects with the bottom of the chamber by an aperture, b', and the oriee c connects directly with the chamber. Upon the valve-seat slides an ordinary short slide-valve, L, and I prefer, for a reason hereinafter stated, to make this valve with but little lap, although it may be made with the ordinary lap for such valves.

Vithin the chamber O is a spring-plate, H, making a partition across it and separating This plate must be secured at its edges by flanges on the chamber, or otherwise, so as to make a tight partition, but still one that may be bulged out in one direction or the other. I prefer to make it of copper or bronze, corrugated like the top of an ancroid barometer; but it may loe of any other metal, corrugated or plain;

but in the latter case its edges ought to fit within a groove so as to have a little motion; but the partition may also be a diaphragm, of leather, india-rubber, or other suitable material, with a central plate bolted or otherwise affixed to it. To this spring-plate 0r diaphragm is attached a rod, I,'slotted, or with two pins projecting from it, so as to constitute two shoulders, d d?. This rod should be guided so that when the spring-plate moves it shall travel in straight lines, or nearly so. Lying between these shoulders is an arm, cl3, which is attached to a rocking shaft, J, supported onany proper bearings. This same shaft has also attached to it three short arms, d, d5, and d. The arm d* lies within a fork,

` making part of a lever, K, pivoted somewhere 'being secured at its upper end.

The spring with its pin and arm are so arranged that the spring shall be compressed by any motion imparted to the shaft until the arm d is vertical, and that it shall after that expand and exert its force in throwing the rockshaft either to the right or to the left, as the case may be. This arrangement of spring is common in sash-locks, and' the spring shown in the drawings may be replaced by one of any other form, acted upon by and producing similar effects upon the shaft, or a tumblingbob-such as is used to reverse motion in metal-planing machines-*may be substituted for the spring. The pivots of the rock-shaft and the lever K may be supported byA a piece of metal, N, which may or may not form one side of the chamber. In case it does not the chamber is to be closed by a cap, R.

The short arm d5 actuates a rod, d, vibrating it at each stroke of the rock-shaft, and these vibrations are to actuate in any proper or usual manner a counter or register of any suitable or ordinary construction, which shall register the vibrations of the rckshaft, and consequently the amount of water or other fluid delivered through the meter.

The action is as follows-z Vater entering through the main into the valve-chest flows through port c/ and through orifice a into the cylinder and moves the ball along, (all parts except the ball being in position, as shown in the drawings.) As the ball moves, water flows out through orifice ft2, through side pipe, B,

through port e2, under and through the valvecup, and out through the delivery E. Then the ball P arrives at the end of' the cylinder,it closes the orifice a2. The head or pressure theh acts upon the spring-plate, shoving it over toward theposition shown by dotted lines. As it moves, the rod I moves and carries the arm d and itsA rock shaft, compressing the spring. Vhen the short arm d arrives at the vertical and passes it a little, the spring expands, throwing the rock-shaft suddenly over, and as it turns the arm d* acts on the forks of the lever K, and the upper -end of the latter reverses the valve. Vater then enters through through b,through the side pipe and orifice ai, and the ball commences to float along toward c', delivering the water contained in the chamber that it traverses. Vhen the ball arrives at c', the springplate, with all its conueetions,and the valve will traverse over again 'to the positions shown inthe drawings, the spring-plate being moved by the pressure of the orifices.

water, made elleetive by the stopping of the orifice e.

In place ofthe ball traveling in the cylinder, a diaphragm secured at its edges at or about the center of the length of the cylinder may be employed. valve is reversed from one position to the other, will reciprocate iu the cylinder, bulg-v ing out alternately on opposite sides, and, when bulged or bellied out to the fullest extent its construction will permit, will check the flow of water into the cylinder, such cheek being due tothe fact that the diaphragm is packed or secured at its edges, and can distend no farther without rupture. Vhen the liow of water is thus cheeked,its head or pressure will become effective and operate upon the spring-plate, and the latter, acting through its connections, will move the valve. lWhen the valve is reversed, water will flowout from the side of the diaphragm that is at that instant concave and enter upon the side that is conn vex, and so continue until the convex side has become eoncaved and the diaphragm reached its limit of motion, and thenthe head will become effective again and the valve will be again reversed. A long slide, or piston, or puppet, or other valves maybe substituted for the short slide shown on the drawings,so long as they have the mode of operation ofthe valve v specially described to open and close ports connecting with different sides of the ball, and I prefer, as before stated, to make a short slide with little lap, so that there will be a leakage While the valve is moving from one position to the other, thus practically preventing a complete stoppage of the flow of water and consequent injury to the pipes. This leakage will be pretty nearly constant at each throw of the valve and may be allowed for. The spring and the acting force upon it and the area of the valve, if unbalanced, (although balanced valves may be used,) must have certain proportions, aithongh such proportions need not be very detinite, the rule being that the spring-plate must be able to compress the spring, and the latter, when ex-v panding, must have force enough to move the valve.

The function ofthe ball is to move with the current of water in the chamber and to stop The function of the springplate is to move when the orifices are closed, being actuated by the head orpressure of water, and its function while moving is to 'compress the spring or lift a weight, and the duty of the spring is to expand after being compressed and move the valve.

I call the spring-plate or diaphragm, and the spring or its equivalent, 'and the connections causing it to actuate the valve, a reversing apparatus,7 and this apparatus may be variously modified so long as its parts perform their proper duties, acting under a mode of operation substantially as described.

I claim as of my own inventionn This diaphragm, when the A reversing` apparatus and valve or valves, In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto subconstructed and acting under a mode of opseribed my name. eration substantially as described, in colnbination with a cylinder or its equivalent in N. AUBIN.

' which the oW of Water is checked or caused to cease by the stoppage of motion of a bali In presence of or its equivalent for the purpose, acting sub- A. AUBIN, stantiaiiy in the manner and for the purpose ENC DE ROY. specified. 

